Like it for the novelty and mystery of trying to guess what the lady behind the painting looks like.

The real message I see here is in the painting and the feet. Everything else pulls me off that message and dilutes it: The red painting and the clutter above, those in the gap. I also don't really see the connection with the caption either and it becomes a distraction also. The drop shadow is dropped and blurred so much it looks like a smudge and is also distracting.

This one is a case where I think isolating the dancer painting and the legs in color and making everything else B&W and blurring it a bit would work and the art <> life duality clearer without all the other distractions. If you try that I'd lose the drop shadow on the caption.

Like it for the novelty and mystery of trying to guess what the lady behind the painting looks like.

The real message I see here is in the painting and the feet. Everything else pulls me off that message and dilutes it: The red painting and the clutter above, those in the gap. I also don't really see the connection with the caption either and it becomes a distraction also. The drop shadow is dropped and blurred so much it looks like a smudge and is also distracting.

This one is a case where I think isolating the dancer painting and the legs in color and making everything else B&W and blurring it a bit would work for this one and the art <> life duality clearer without all the other distractions. If you try that I'd lose the drop shadow on the caption.